Monday, April 22, 2013

The Washington Capitals did what needed to be done in the week that
was.They started this past week leading
the Southeast Division and finished it that way.And that really is the whole object of the
exercise. at this point of the seasonHow did they get there?Let us take a look.

Record: 2-1-0

The Caps went into the week having to face three playoff-eligible
teams.They came out of it with two wins
and within a goaltending lapse and a couple of bounces from gaining at least a
point in the third game.It is part of a
trend that started back in early February.When the Caps lost on that night to the Pittsburgh Penguins, here were
the standings:

Fast forward to now.Here are
the records and standings of the teams in the Eastern Conference since that
night (through games of Saturday):

The Caps have had ten straight non-losing weeks.If they have one more, they will play in the
post season.

Offense: 3.67 (season: 3.04 / rank: 5th)

Five goals was a popular total this week.The Caps put up five goals in two of the three
games and did it in the same fashion.Get a lead, pour it on in the second period, and end the competitive
portion of the game early.Washington
took a lead into the first intermission in both wins this week, 1-0 over
Toronto and 2-0 over Montreal.Then, they
added three in their game against Toronto in the second period, two in their
game against Montreal.By the time the
third period rolled around, 4-0 leads in both games were too much for Toronto
or Montreal to dent.In the loss, the
Caps were held to a scoreless tie by Ottawa in the first period and managed only a fluky goal
scored in the second period as a product of amazing hand-eye coordination by both the passer (Martin
Erat) and the scorer (Mike Ribeiro) against the Senators.For the week, Alex Ovechkin and Troy Brouwer
had three goals apiece to lead the club, while Mike Ribeiro led the Caps in
overall scoring, going 1-5-6.

Defense: 1.67 (season: 2.73 / rank: 19th)

There was the good and the bad here.Overall the shot totals wrote a new verse in a continuing theme with
this team this year – a lot of shots allowed.Opponents recorded 104 shots in the three games (34.7), slightly higher
than the Caps’ average for the season coming into the week (32.0).But the Caps did a pretty good job of capping
teams early.In the two wins for the
week the Caps held the Maple Leafs to eight shots in the first period and the
Canadiens to nine.Even against Ottawa,
the game the Caps lost, the Senators had 11 shots on goal, not an excessive
number for a single period.However, the Caps were a lot
more porous, shots-wise, in the second and third periods of all three games –
22 allowed to Toronto, 27 to Ottawa, and 27 to Montreal.The good thing here is that the totals
against Toronto and Montreal might reflect score effects, the Caps holding
leads in those two games after one period.Against Ottawa, they just looked a half-step behind.

Goaltending: 1.34 / .961 (season: 2.68 / .917 / 4 shutouts)

It was Braden Holtby’s week once more.And Holtby seems to be ramping up his game in advance of the
playoffs.The .961 save percentage was
impressive enough, but he got his ornery on in the last game of the week,
flattening Montreal’s Travis Moen as the latter was taking an aggressive tack
toward Holtby’s crease.Holtby’s season
mirrors that of the Caps as a whole, unsurprising since Holtby has appeared in
34 of the Caps’ 45 games.By that we
mean his season is really two seasons, one being up to February 7th and
that 2-8-1 team record, and the post-February 7th portion of the
season.

In the former, Holtby was 1-4-0, 4.73, .857.But since then he is 20-8-1, 2.27, .930, with
four shutouts.Here is how impressive
that post-February 7th record is.In terms of current rankings his goals against average would rank 14th,
but that is largely a product of having faced 32.5 shots per game in that
span.His .930 save percentage would
rank third, behind only Craig Anderson (.944) and tied with Sergei Bobrovsky (.930).He will not be in the Vezina conversation at
regular season’s end, but it would be hard to find a goaltender playing better going
into the post-season.

Power Play: 4-12 / 33.3 percent (season: 26.1 percent /rank 1st)

“Efficiency” was the word to describe the Caps’ power play this
week.Well, at least in the wins.In the two wins for the week the Caps were
4-for-9 overall in just 12:00 of power play time, and they scored those four
goals on ten power play shots.Against
Ottawa the Caps were 0-for-3 overall and managed only four unsuccessful shots
in 4:20 of power play time.Here is the
odd number of the week for the power play: “four.”Mike Green recorded assists on all four power
play goals for the week.Three of them
were primary assists.And here is your
bonus odd number: “16.”With two power
play goals, Alex Ovechkin now has 16 for the season, far ahead of the second place total (Steven Stamkos: 10).Ovechkin is one of only 10
players in NHL history with five or more seasons with 16 or more power play
goals.He trails only Teemu Selanne (six
seasons) among active players.

All of a sudden, the Caps can kill penalties.The 11-for-11 week extended a run for the
Caps that has reached 15-for-15 going back to their April 11th game
against Carolina.And, the Caps have four
straight games in which they killed off all the shorthanded situations they
faced.That is not an especially long
streak, but consider this.Ottawa leads
the NHL in penalty killing (87.9 percent).Their longest streak of games without allowing a power play goal is
four.You have to start being good
somewhere, and now is as good a time as any.

Hits/Blocked Shots: 74 / 47 (season rank: 20th / 8th)

The number of note here is the blocked shots number.A drop of 24 from the previous week looks
rather significant, but what influenced that result was what the Caps did to
Toronto.Washington had only nine
blocked shots in that game, but then again, the Maple Leafs had only 47 total
shot attempts for the game.And that was
an odd game in that no Capital had more than one blocked shot. For the week,
John Carlson had almost 20 percent of the total number of blocked shots (nine)
and had six against Montreal alone.

Faceoffs: 86-188 / 45.7 percent (season: 50.3 percent / rank: T-14th)

It was not a very good week in the circle.The most noteworthy single fact about the
week is that in the Caps’ 3-1 loss to Ottawa they won only three of 14
offensive zone draws, none of the wins coming from anyone by Nicklas Backstrom
(3-for-7).It was part of a week in
which the Caps were just 25-for-61 on offensive zone draws (41.0 percent).It is merely anecdotal, but one thinks about
how the Caps scored almost effortlessly against Montreal (or perhaps more
precisely, with lack of effort from Canadiens goaltender Carey Price) when Mike Ribeiro
won a draw, Karl Alzner collected the puck, and Troy Brouwer scored off a feed
from Alzner – all in a space of six seconds – to know that such things can be
important.

Turnovers: plus-2

It was not an especially noteworthy week, good or bad, save for one
turnover.With the Caps and Senators
tied, 1-1, midway through the second period, Braden Holtby chose that moment to
send a wayward pass past the outstretched stick of Karl Alzner and onto the stick
of Cory Conacher.Two seconds later, the
Senators capitalized on the giveaway and had what would be their game-winning
goal.As much as the how many, sometimes
it is the “how” that will do a team in or put them over the top.

In the end…

The Caps had another good week. They cannot do anything about the fact
that Winnipeg closed the gap on the Caps with a five-point week of their
own.The Caps can only take care of
their own business.And how they have
done that is be being methodical, efficient, and consistent.They will lose games from time to time, as
they did this past week to Ottawa, but the trick now is not to let a loss
become a streak.

The Caps, for example, have not lost consecutive games in regulation
since dropping their third in a row on March 12th.Since then they are 15-4-1.That is a recipe to close the deal if they
continue that trend this coming week, a week in which their business and that
of Winnipeg will intersect.The Caps can
clinch the Southeast Division and a top-three seed in the playoffs with a win
over the Jets – a win in regulation if the Jets defeat Buffalo on Monday, a win
of any kind if the Jets lose to the the Sabres on Monday.

WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

The Washington Capitals enter the 2016-2017 as one of 12 franchises in the NHL never to win a Stanley Cup. Of that group, only the St. Louis Blues (48 seasons), Buffalo Sabres (45 seasons), and Vancouver Canucks (45 seasons) have gone longer never having won a Cup than the Capitals (41 seasons). Six teams came into the league after the Capitals entered the league in 1974-1975 and have won Stanley Cups: Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils (1976-1977), Edmonton Oilers (1979-1980), Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche (1979-1980), Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes (1979-1980), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-1993), and the Anaheim Ducks (1993-1994).

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